Home | Information | Multicultural | Media | Visual

Lesson: Scanning for Visual Details

Description

The purpose of this lesson is for students to practice scanning images visually for details that can be seen. This lesson will focus on locating visual details and examining them within the overall context of an image. For the corresponding lesson on scanning text, click here.

Learning Outcomes   I   Suggested Procedure   I   Assessment    for this Lesson

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to locate visual details within images.
Students will be able to look at an image's larger context to gain insights into the meaning of visual details.
Students will be able use captions to locate and identify the meaning of visual details.

Set-up

The images and image clips of visual details for this lesson can be found at http://www.csuohio.edu/history/exercise/vlehome.html.

Japanese artist, Hiroshige Ando created a series of woodblock prints titled, The Fifty Three Stations of the Tokaido, during the nineteenth Century. The fifteen prints depict views along the Tokaido - the "Eastern Sea Route" in Japan.

Teachers may present this lesson in one of the following three ways:

1. In the case that students do not have online access, teachers can download the images and worksheets, and make copies.
2. If there are a few computers in the back of the classroom, the teacher can download images and worksheets, and make copies. Students can then take turns checking their work on the computers in the classroom.
3. Direct each student or groups of students to the Web site where they can complete the visual literacy activities online.

Download the fifteen images and print them in color if possible. Fold the caption so that it is hidden from view. Tape the top edge of the pictures up around the room at the student's eye level. If students need to read the captions, they can lift the picture up to read the caption.

OR

Project the images from the website for the class.

Suggested Procedure

Locating visual details (Large group presentation - 10 minutes)

Either project the first image (http://www.csuohio.edu/history/exercise/vle0201.html) somewhere where all of the students can see it, or have a copy of the image for each student.

Ask the students if they can find Mt. Fuji. Next, ask them to point out the sailboats on the Surga Bay. Finally, ask students to locate the cliff side travelers. Ask students to reflect upon their process of looking. How did you look for them? What clues did you use to look for them?

Because the cliff side travelers are more difficult to locate, briefly discuss what strategies students might use to find this kind of visual detail. Ask them: What do you think are some strategies for searching for visual details?

Possible answers:

1. Read the image from left to right.
2. Create a grid on top of the image and then look carefully in each square.
3. Read the caption for clues - i.e. "Travelers venture to the edge of the cliff (at the far left of the print)."
4. Look within context - i.e. look at the side of the cliff to find them.

Visual detail scavenger hunt (Individual or small group practice - 15 - 20 minutes)

Instruct students to walk around the room looking at the pictures taped on the walls to complete the worksheets by identifying the PEOPLE 1 or 2 and THINGS 1 or 2 in the clipped pictures. There are four different worksheets; assign 1 sheet for each individual or team.

Explain that captions can inform the viewer of what is in the picture and are usually located below the picture. Show the students that the captions are on a separate sheet. If the students can't find what they are looking for, they can refer to the caption on the separate sheet for additional clues.

After students finish, discuss if they had difficulty finding anything. If so, what? Did they eventually find it? If so, how? How often did they refer to the caption on the back of the picture? Did the captions help?

To make the point that meaning can be difficult to decipher without the larger context of the image, ask students to look at the clip of the straw hat (# 17 on the page). Can you tell what it is in the thumbnail version? If you look at the detail within the larger context, is it easier to tell what it is? What clues within the larger context tell you that it is a straw hat blowing in the wind? What clues does the caption give as to what it is?

Visual details as evidence (Large group discussion - 10 minutes)

Explain to students that visual details can provide evidence as to meaning.

Tell students to look at the first image again, http://www.csuohio.edu/history/exercise/vle0201.html

Ask students: From looking at the visual details in this print, what can the viewer tell about Japan's geography? What else can the viewer tell about Japan? Other than Mt. Fuji, the sailboats in Surga Bay and the cliffside travelers, what visual details can you see in the picture? (Possible answers: trees growing on the side of the cliffs, lines in the Bay that may be boats or islands)

For another practice, ask students to look at image #12, http://www.csuohio.edu/history/exercise/vle0212.html

Again, ask students: What are some of the visual details in this image? What do they communicate to the viewer? (Possible answer: The person is chasing the straw hat that has blown off; that it is windy.)

Assessment (Individual practice - 10 minutes)

What do the visual details in this collection tell the viewer?

Ask students to write what they know about Japan and the people of Japan from the series of woodblock prints. For each item that they write down, they must cite three visual details that support it (i.e. The geography of Japan is varied). Image #1 shows Mt. Fuji and Surga Bay. In image #10 , there is a dense forest. Image #12 depicts low coastal lands.

 Other visual literacy lessons: Locating Images   I   Scanning for Visual Details   I    Structural Comparisons   I
    
              The Function of Images in Text   I   Framing and Point of View  I   Images as Persuasion

This page was last updated May 2, 2002 This lesson was created to support the AT&T/UCLA Initiatives for 21st Century Literacies. Scanning for Visual Details was created by Cricket Heinze and Cornelia Brunner.